When expressed in artistic and inventive ways, typography moves away from being simply words arranged for print and becomes inspiring and exciting forms of design.

In this article, we look at 5 of the top famous typography artists and their work.

Christopher Wool

An American typography artist living and working in New York City, Christopher Wool uses a wide range of techniques and style in his works.

He is, however, best known in the typographic world for his striking, large-scale paintings of black-stencilled type on white canvas backgrounds.

These pieces often have phrases with the words abbreviated, disrupted and in grid format, making it slightly more difficult for the viewer to perceive and make sense of the piece as a whole.

Some are also rather enigmatic, one for example which simply says ‘The Harder You Look, The Harder You Look’. These paintings are the most iconic of his influential career and are instantly recognisable and highly popular.

More of his work can be viewed on his official website.

Learn more about Christopher Wool’s typography work

Christopher Wool – By Katherine Brinson

At the heart of Christopher Wool’s creative project, which spans three decades of highly focused practice, is the question of how a picture can be conceived, realised and experienced today. Engaging the complexities of painting as a medium, as well as the anxious rhythms of the urban environment and a wide range of cultural references, his agile, largely monochrome works propose an open-ended series of responses to this central problem.

He uses an extensive range of media and equipment, generating stunning outcomes and effects. One of his most ambitious pieces is titled ‘You Blow Me Away’ which he collaborated with kinetic still-life photographer Jason Tozer to create.

With the type screen printed onto sheets of glass, they fired various objects through them and photographed the scenes at various stages. The results were both unique and incredible.

Ward is also well known for his piece titled ‘Bad Typography Is Everywhere’ which highlights in a visually clever way the fact that the world is so full of bad typography rules artwork that people often don’t notice the good.

Learn more about Craig Ward

Multi award-winning designer, typography designers and TED speaker, Craig Ward, presents his first self-authored book – Popular Lies About Graphic Design. An attempt to debunk the various misconceptions, half-truths and, in some cases, outright lies which permeate the industry of design.

Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister, of design firm Sagmeister & Walsh, is a New York-based, Austrian graphic designer and famous typography designers who is very well known for his album cover design and has a reputation for producing really interesting and evocative typography art.

Typography features heavily in his work and he uses a broad range of approaches to achieve his designs.

Alongside his client-based work, he conducts personally driven projects such as the ongoing ’20 Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far’ which includes his real-world typographic compositions named ‘Trying to Look Good Limits My Life’.

This consists of 5 separate pieces spelling out the words of the sentence using natural and industrial materials arranged in 5 different environments.

This maxim is also applied to a leather belt with the words created using punched out holes that also serve as the belt holes.

Learn More about Stefan Sagmeister

Things I have learned in my life so far – By Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister published Things I have learned in my life so far, a book born from a running list he keeps in his diary. With the support of his clients, Sagmeister began transforming these personal maxims into typographic artworks, which appeared on billboards, in magazines, and in public spaces all over the world. The result is an intriguing blend of personal revelation, visual audacity, and examination of the pursuit of happiness.

He makes use of objects which are of a tubular shape such as pens, pencils and squeezed liquids such as creams and sauces and intricately weaves and intertwines the strokes to create the complicated yet visually pleasing effects he achieves.

Learn more about famous Typography designers

The Typography Idea Book – By Steven Heller and Gail Anderson

This book serves as an introduction to the key elements of good typographic design. Broken into sections covering the fundamentals of typography, the book features inspiring works by acclaimed typographic designers from across the world. Each section illustrates technical points and encourages readers to try out new ideas of their own.

Wim Crouwel

Wim Crouwel is a Dutch graphic designer and one of the most famous typography designers for his typeface design called ‘New Alphabet’ which he created in 1967.

The typeface was designed in such a way to make it represent the limitations of the cathode ray tube technology used in early typesetting equipment.

This technology limited the process of recreating type and so the typeface Crouwel created is entirely made up of only straight lines, 45 degrees and 90-degree angles.

This makes it fairly hard to read which was the main criticism from the design community at the time of its creation, however, it was designed with aesthetic and theory in mind and was never intended to be used as a functioning typeface due to its illegibility.

As a display typeface it is very impressive, especially on bold coloured backgrounds, and reading it provides you with an interesting challenge, which makes it somewhat interactive as well as attractive.

Stuart delivered a logo for my business a few years ago and I'm really glad I went with him as the design has stood the test of time and I've used it extensively across social media etc. Highly recommendedread more

William E Spicer

14:02 01 Nov 17

Inkbot Design has tons of info and GREAT designs, check them out!!!

Rosalind.J. Lee

14:54 23 Oct 17

Inkbot's design work is world renowned, and his blog posts are clear to read.

John Sullivan

14:20 22 Oct 17

Convenient and easy to find location using Google maps.

Gary Finley

13:33 22 Oct 17

I find Inkbot Design a great place for ideas and general information. A vary informative site..Well recommended

Doug Wolfgram

12:23 22 Oct 17

Ink bot design has demonstrated superb skill in all areas of design. If you need a logo, web layout or general, branding project done, they're the firm to use.read more

Odin Wallace

12:02 22 Oct 17

I give this agency my highest rating for extensive knowledge and consistent service.

Stuart delivered a logo for my business a few years ago and I'm really glad I went with him as the design has stood the test of time and I've used it extensively across social media etc. Highly recommended